Skip to main content

Zomato investment signals ascent of Corporate VCs in India?

In the context of online restaurants review service Zomato raising about $20M with revenues of less than $2M, seed investment specialist Anand Lunia has a quora post on how corporate VCs (like Naukri, One97, etc) have more "courage, belief and patience" to take such leaps of faith than pure commercial VCs. Extract:


That a large proportion of Consumer Internet companies, at least in the past, have been funded by Corporate Investors. Perhaps regular VCs have preferred topline first businesses like restaurants, healthcare chains, pharma manufacturing (!).

The early stage VCs in India have done a decent job, however, of following these corporate nurtured ventures  with Series B/C investments, in a slightly herd like behaviour (the way everybody queued up recently for a certain on-line fashion co was funny.)
...The operating word for the failed ones was 'revenue'. The operating word for the successful ones was Product and Usage. Revenue is the best strategy for continuous funding rounds in India. Having a corporate venture fund who will go all the way up to $10-20 M investment without seeking validation from one more VC is a big advantage.

Going after a large market was another big mistake that many made. That explains the pivots pretty much every E-Commerce company made AFTER raising a large VC round. This also explains the pivots that many content companies did into  E-Commerce. What are the  chances that Zomato would have been doing table reservations/food delivery/gourmet food E-Commerce after raising the first $2M?  


Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Popular posts from this blog

PE-VC investments decline 8% to $6.2 B in Q1'24

Press Release: Private Equity - Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms invested over $6.2 Billion (across 205 deals) in Indian companies during the first three months of 2024, shows data from  Venture Intelligence , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions, and their valuations. (Note: These figures include Venture Capital type investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate). The investment amount represents a 8% fall over the $6.7 Billion (across 242 deals) invested in the same period during 2023 and also down by 6% when compared to the immediate previous quarter (which witnessed $6.6 Billion being invested across 200 deals). Deal volumes in Q1'24 also declined 15% compared to Q1'23 and were up by 3% compared to the immediate previous quarter.  Q1’24 witnessed 8 mega deals ($100 M+ rounds) worth $3.5 Billion, compared to 17 such investments (worth $3.6 Billion) in Q1’23 and 15 such deals (worth $4.1 Billion) in the immediate previous quarter....

Avendus tops League Table for Transaction Advisors to PE deals in H1'24

Citi and Ambit claim the No.2&3 slots Avendus topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Transaction Advisor to Private Equity Transactions in H1’2024 advising 12 deals worth $2.4 Billion. Citi stood second, having advised 1 deal worth $2 Billion. Ambit followed with 7 deals worth $797 million. Kotak Mahindra Capital ($735 million across 2 deals) and Ernst & Young ($657 million across 7 deals) completed the top five for H1’ 2024. The  Venture Intelligence League Tables , the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on the value of PE and M&A transactions advised by Financial and Legal Advisory firms. Among the larger deals in the latest quarter, Citi, KPMG , Ernst & Young advised $2 Billion acquisition of the Indian business of American Tower Corporation by Brookfield . Avendus, Ernst & Young, JM Financial, Barclays and KPMG advised $ 554 million acquisition of Shriram Housing Finance by Warb...

AZB tops League Table for Legal Advisors to PE deals in H1’24

Trilegal and Khaitan & Co. claim the No.2 & No.3 slots AZB & Partners (AZB) topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Legal Advisor to Private Equity Transactions in H1 2024 advising 41 deals worth $5.4 Billion. It was followed by Trilegal ($5.1 Billion across 54 deals) and Khaitan & Co. (4.8 Billion across 46 deals) in the second and third spot respectively. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) ($2.9 Billion across 34 deals) and Talwar Thakore & Associates ($2.4 Billion across 9 deals) completed the top five. Among the larger Private Equity deals during H1’2024, Khaitan & Co., Talwar Thakore & Associates, S&R Associates ,and Trilegal a dvised the $2 Billion acquisition of the Indian business of American Tower Corporation by Brookfield which was the largest PE-VC investment in 2024 . AZB advised the $900 Million acquisition of Altimetrik by TPG Capital and the $840 Million acquisition of Healthium Medtech by KKR . Resolut Partners , Khaitan & ...

Citi tops League Table for Transaction Advisors to M&A deals in H1'24

  Ernst & Young and Avendus claim the No.2 & No.3 slots Citi , which advised the  $2 Billion acquisition of the Indian business of American Tower Corporation by Brookfield,  topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Transaction Advisors to M&A Deals   during H1 2024. Ernst & Young stood second advising 8 deals worth $1.5 billion. Avendus followed with 7 deals worth $1.2 billion. KPMG ($1.1 billion across 5 deals) and JM Financial ($900 million across 4 deals) completed the top five. The  Venture Intelligence League Tables , the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on the value of PE and M&A transactions advised by Financial and Legal Advisory firms. Among the other larger M&A deals in H1 2024 (other than the  ATC-Brookfield deal) , Ernst & Young, KPMG and Deloitte advised $1.1 Billion acquisition in PNC Infratech 12 Road Projects by Highways Infrastructure Tr...

AZB & Partners tops League Table for Legal Advisors to M&A deals in H1’24

Khaitan & Co. and J Sagar Associates claim the No.2 & No.3 slots AZB & Partners topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Legal Advisor to M&A Transactions during H1 2024 advising 37 deals worth $14.8 Billion. It was followed by Khaitan & Co. ($12.8 Billion across 32 deals) and J Sagar Associates (JSA) ($9.8 Billion across 13 deals). Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) ($6.2 Billion across 38 deals) and Trilegal ($4.8 Billion across 20 deals) completed the top five. Among the largest M&A deals during H1 2024, AZB, JSA and Khaitan & Co. advised $8.5 Billion acquisition of Disney Hotstar by Reliance Jio . S&R Associates , Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA), Khaitan & Co. and Trilegal advised the $2 Billion buyout deal   of  ATC India by Canadian infrastructure investor Brookfield Asset Management . CAM advised the $1.3 Billion in the acquisition of a  further  stake in Ambuja Cement  by Adani Enterprises . Among fo...